Vega Brothers: Khan: Secret Baby BBW (The Bear Shifters of Vega Ranch Book 2) (5 page)

“He’s just jealous because blonds have more fun,” Ava said, running her fingers through Julius’ messy hair. She took her mug and sat down at the table.

Ava was trying to get Khan’s attention but he really didn’t want to give anything away in front of his brothers. He didn’t want to hear any mocking, nagging, or teasing.

“I’m going to let my Kodiak go hunting,” he said, finishing the last of his cold coffee and standing up.

“Hey!” Julius called out as Khan walked out of the room. “Clean up your plate!”

Khan popped his head back into the kitchen. “You’re the son of the butler, blondie. You do it.”

“It was who?!?” Jodi asked, spitting out a mouthful of coffee onto the table.

“Yeah,” Bailey said, smiling. “Imagine how shocked I was.”

“So what the hell happened?”

Bailey explained how the government forced him and his brothers to go to war and he wasn’t able to tell her. Jodi didn’t look too convinced.

“How much bad television does this guy watch? You believed that insane story?”

Bailey sighed. “His body is covered in scars. He has bullet holes everywhere.”

“Keep talking,” Jodi said with a grin, “about why you were looking at his naked body.”

“He showed me,” Bailey said with a laugh. “We didn’t do anything. Well, we did kiss.”

“You kissed?” Jodi asked, lowering her coffee and leaning forward. “Do tell.”

“That was it, really,” she said. “But he kissed me.” She wanted to go further but she had stopped herself. It was best to take it slow. Plus she didn’t want to sleep with him until he knew the truth about Liam.

“So, was the kiss good?”

Bailey smiled in response. Khan had always been a good kisser. Nobody before or since had made her body react like
he
was always able to.

Liam walked in wearing the bathroom garbage can over his head. “I am a robot,” he said in a robot voice.

“Hi robot,” Bailey said. “Did you dump out all of the garbage that was in there onto the bathroom floor?”

Liam just ignored her, waddling around the room saying, “beep bop boop.”

“You should program that robot to clean and cook,” Jodi said, watching the little robot as he walked into the plant.

Bailey’s little man threw off the garbage can and ran down the hallway. She turned back to her sister. “I don’t know what to do. I felt like such a horrible person sitting in front of him and hiding this huge secret.”

“You’re not a bad person,” Jodi said. “You tried to tell him when you found out that you were pregnant, right?”

She had gone to the ranch and talked to his father when she had first found out. His dad had said that he was unreachable, that he had moved overseas, but he wouldn’t give her any other details than that. He did offer to pass on a message the next time that he would hear from Khan but she said no. What was she supposed to say?
Oh just tell him that I’m having his baby whenever you hear from him. Thanks!

Jodi took a sip of her coffee as she stared at Bailey. “Are you going to tell him?”

A tearing, popping sound came from Liam’s room, making Bailey’s skin crawl. “Was that?” Jodi asked, turning her head towards the horrible sound.

The two sisters raced down the hall and stopped in the doorway to Liam’s room.

“Oh my God!” Jodi said, her hands flying up to her mouth. “That’s incredible. That’s magic shit.”

Bailey sighed and stepped into her son’s room. She dropped to a knee and the cuddly furry bear waddled up to her and pressed his wet snout into her stomach. She fell over onto her ass and he climbed on top of her lap. He was getting bigger and stronger every day and she could barely push him off now.

She needed someone who knew what to do. She needed help. She needed the boy’s father.

She needed Khan.

They backed out of the room and Bailey closed the door, leaving the little bear inside. It was better than letting him roam around the apartment. Last time he nearly destroyed the kitchen.

“I’ll never get used to that,” Jodi said, staring at the closed door of Liam’s room.

“You and me both,” Bailey said.

“You have to tell him,” Jodi said, leaning against the wall in the hallway. “What are you going to do when he’s a full-sized bear?”

Bailey’s chin began to tremble. “I don’t know.”

Jodi stepped forward and hugged her, kissing Bailey on the cheek. “It’s going to be okay, sis. We’ll get through this.”

How? How was she supposed to get through this? She didn’t know anything about bears, especially how to raise one.

She took a deep breath and sighed. “I better go see him.”

five

Khan stumbled out of the forest in his bear form after spending the whole afternoon hunting. His Kodiak hadn’t been this happy since he was with Bailey the first time around when they were younger.

His bear usually went after his prey with a terrifying ferocity. He ran full sprint during the hunting sessions, clawing and snarling in a berserker rage. Today was different. His bear wandered through the forest carefree and happy. He smelled the trees, ate some berries and even lied down for a nap in the shade under a large maple tree.

His mate was back in Khan’s life and his Kodiak didn’t have a care in the world.

Khan reined his bear back in as he surged forward. The large Kodiak bear bucked and groaned as his body shook violently. His big, lumbering shoulders shrank down and hardened, his back turned to rippling muscles and the long brown hairs on his body shrank into the peach skin that covered his human body.

Khan came to on his knees and shook the cobwebs out of his head. He felt his bear settle down contently within his chest and he smiled. He was happy that his bear was finally finding some peace after a rough few years of being parted from his mate. He hoped that he could make it last.

It was a hot afternoon and Khan strolled to the house completely naked.

“Hey sexy!” a soft, feminine voice called out. His heart panged as he looked over his shoulder to the large driveway. Bailey was sitting on the hood of her car watching him with a grin on her luscious lips. He could still feel how soft those lips felt on his last night. He had been thinking about it all day.

He covered himself as best he could with his hands and walked towards her wearing nothing but a smile. “You came.”

“I did.”

He stood in front of her and just stared. This felt like a dream. It felt like she was an angel and if he reached out and touched her she would vanish.

“I came to talk to you,” she said, rubbing her hands down her pant legs. “There was something I should have told you last night. Actually, I should have told you a long time ago.”

“What is it?” Khan asked, tilting his head to the side.

She sighed. “Can you put some clothes on, please? It’s a little hard to talk to you seriously with your little bear hanging out.”

“Shit,” he said, rushing to the house. He had been so excited to see her that he completely forgot that he was naked. He grabbed his clothes off the balcony, pulled his faded jeans on and yanked down his shirt while running back.

Bailey was biting her fingernails like she often did when she was nervous. A feeling of dread crept into Khan’s body, washing over the happiness that had filled him all day.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

She closed her eyes and ran her hand through her chestnut hair. “I have something to tell you,” she said. “But please don’t hate me.”

Khan’s stomach rolled with nerves. He could never hate her but he was still nervous to hear where this was going.

Bailey exhaled hard. “My child is yours.”

“Huh?” Khan asked jerking his head back. “How can your child be, oh.” A wave of heat consumed him as her shocking words registered. He felt lightheaded and his legs became so weak that he felt a sudden need to sit down.

Bailey jumped off the car to grab him as he dropped his ass onto the ground. “Wait,” he said, placing his hand on his sweaty forehead. “What?”

She sat down on the ground beside him and picked a blade of grass. “Liam is your son.”

“How is that possible?” he asked. He was still trying to process it but his mind was so numb from the news that it was hard.

“Do I really have to explain that part to you? Sorry,” she said, catching herself. “I’ll give you a minute.”

Khan lowered his head and tried to concentrate on inhaling and exhaling. Breathing had become so difficult all of a sudden. He had a son. Bailey’s child was his.
He
was the other man in her life that he spent all night envying.

He snapped his head up as anger replaced his confusion. “How could you not tell me?” he asked in a harsh tone. “You kept him from me.”

Bailey recoiled back. “I’m sorry, Khan, I-”

“You what?” he snapped. “You didn’t think I had a right to know? That I have a son?”

She lowered her head as her chin shook and her eyes began to water.

“How could you!” he hissed. “I missed everything. The diapers, the first walk, the baby food, the laughing, the sleepless nights. You stole that from me!”

Khan could feel his Kodiak bear pacing around inside him. His bear didn’t like him talking to his mate like this.

“I didn’t mean to hide him,” she said as tears rushed down her cheeks. “I wanted to tell you but you were gone. You just left me without an explanation or even a word of goodbye.”

“You could have found me,” he said shaking his head. “You could have tried harder.”

“I did try!” she snapped back. This time, her voice was the one raised. “
You
vanished.
You
left me with a broken heart and a kid to raise on my own. I was only a kid myself and
you
weren’t there. So don’t fucking blame me. I did the best I could.”

She jumped to her feet and ran to her car as her shoulders shook with sobs.

Khan’s heart was breaking seeing her in pain like that. He hadn’t thought of it from her point of view. He had left to save her life but she hadn’t known that. She thought that he had abandoned her. And the government had made his location so secret that she couldn’t have found him even if she tried.

“Wait,” Khan called out as she opened the door. She stood still with her back to him, her shoulders still shaking with sobs. “I’m sorry. Can we talk about this?”

She turned with wet red eyes and hurt brimming from her face. “Do you think I wanted my son to grow up without a father?” she asked. “Do you think I wanted to hide him from you? I loved you, Khan. I really did. I would have married you if you would have asked.”

Khan’s eyes dropped to the grass. He always wanted to ask her. He just never did. It was one of the biggest regrets in his life.

“Don’t you think I wanted you there?” she asked, violently wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “For the diapers, the first walk, the baby food, the laughing, and the sleepless nights. Don’t you think that I wanted to share that with you? To have a lover to experience it all with, rather than do it all by myself, lonely and exhausted?”

“I didn’t have a choice,” Khan said, desperate for her to understand. “They threatened my life. They threatened
your
life.”

“You should have told me,” she whispered. “You should have explained.”

Khan shook his head as his eyes started to burn with tears. “I couldn’t have risked that,” he said. “I’d rather have you safe, and be suffering and miserable without you than risk your life. I had to protect the life of my mate first. It was the only thing that mattered.”

Bailey looked at him with a dazed look. “Your mate? You had bonded to me?”

Khan nodded. “Of course,” he said, although he had never told her. She was a teenager when they were together and he didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on her. “Don’t you feel it? The bond? Were you ever able to truly let me go?”

She bit her lip and shook her head as fresh tears leaked down her face. “No,” she whispered.

When a shifter bonded to their mate there was an unbreakable pull to that person that lasted throughout their whole lifetime. Humans couldn’t experience the intensity of that draw but they still felt the effects, but in a much milder version.

Bailey closed the door of her car and walked back towards him. Khan opened his arms and she stepped inside, wrapping her arms around him. He inhaled the vanilla scent of her hair and moaned contently. This was where she belonged: in his arms. It didn’t matter what they had put each other through in the past. It could all be fixed. The future was all that mattered.

“I’m sorry I got mad,” he whispered. “It was just a lot to take in.”

She buried her face into his chest. “I’m truly sorry, Khan,” she said. “I feel like such a horrible person. I stole four years from your time with your son and four years from our son’s time with his father.”

“Those years are gone,” he said, pressing his lips to the top of her head. “We can dwell on them or move on and look to the future instead.”

“The future sounds nice,” she whispered.

Khan squeezed her tight. “If you’re in it, it does.”

They held each other for a while and then walked over to the chairs beside the fire pit. “I know you have pictures on you,” Khan said as they sat down beside each other.